1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reclining mechanism of a reclining seat, and more specifically relates to a reclining mechanism of a reclining seat which is provided with a reclining angle memory mechanism that remembers the angular position of the previous adjustment to the seat back after the seat back has been pivoted forward.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicle seats such as front vehicle seats are often constructed as reclining seats having a reclining mechanism which allows the seat back to be tilted rearward to any desired angle. Such reclining seats which are provided with a reclining angle memory mechanism that remembers the angular position of the previous adjustment to the seat back after the seat back has been pivoted forward in, e.g., a “walk-in” operation (in which the seat back of the front sliding seat is firstly tilted forward (pivoted forward), and subsequently the front sliding seat is moved fully forward) is performed to allow passengers to enter the rear seat or to allow cargo to be stored behind the front sliding seat are known in the art.
In such reclining seats having a reclining angle memory mechanism, there is a possibility of the reclining angle memory mechanism not functioning properly if a manual operation member for manually unlocking a reclining lock mechanism for locking the seat back and another manual operation member for manually actuating the reclining angle memory mechanism are operated at the same time. In other words, the reclining mechanism is provided with a ratchet which is rotatable relative to both the seat back and the seat cushion, the reclining lock mechanism either prevents the ratchet from rotating relative to the seat cushion (locked state) or allows the ratchet to rotate relative to the seat cushion (unlocked state), and the reclining angle memory mechanism either prevents the ratchet from rotating relative to the seat back (memory released state) or allows the ratchet to rotate relative to the seat back (memory operating state.). Due to this structure, if the reclining lock mechanism is put in the unlocked state while the reclining angle memory mechanism is put in the memory operating state, the ratchet becomes capable of rotating relative to both the seat cushion and the seat back, which may cause the angular position of the ratchet to move off the proper (remembered) angular position thereof.